


We Outgrew Paradise

by MagpieMorality



Series: Writepie Prompt Fills [35]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Complicated Characters, Conflict, Deceit splits in two, Deceit's Lies - Eden Sanders, Deceit's Self-preservation - Eve Sanders, Gen or Pre-Slash, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Sort of? - Freeform, Split Deceit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:35:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22834162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagpieMorality/pseuds/MagpieMorality
Summary: From this prompt:"Deceit splits into Eve and Eden (one is more self-preservation and one is more lies), maybe some roceit and anxceit?"
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Deceit Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Deceit Sanders
Series: Writepie Prompt Fills [35]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1638634
Comments: 11
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> From this prompt:
> 
> "Deceit splits into Eve and Eden (one is more self-preservation and one is more lies), maybe some roceit and anxceit?"

In the moments immediately after the split- _why did it happen it shouldn’t have happened it shouldn’t be possible what does this mean_ \- one half flees the scene, seeking the safety of the privacy of their room, and the other lays unconscious on the hallway floor, unceremoniously abandoned to the mercy of the other sides.

Minutes or maybe hours later after reaching the bed and curling into the sheets another body joins the first, and they turn automatically to stare at one another, expressions both equally terrified and shaken. They lay there, not saying a word, until they both fall asleep from sheer exhaustion, recovering from the painful experience of… being born? It’s an inelegant comparison but it’s not entirely inaccurate. They’ve been born, like a new phoenix, from the ashes of the old one. 

It is days that pass then as they sleep, almost three before someone comes to check on them. On him. They’re making progress fitting in, but it still isn’t uncommon for the less socialised sides to take time to themselves, and pushing is never advisable. 

But Thomas wishes to check on him so check on him they do. 

Virgil goes first, attempting in his small way to rebuild their burnt bridges. He slips inside, and sits on the edge of the bed when he doesn’t respond, reaching out to touch the lump under the blankets. It shifts, and then it shifts in a way it shouldn’t be able to and his shocked shout and the crash as he falls off the bed in his hurry to scramble away draws the others. 

They pile inside, Roman and Remus at the front searching for the problem, but silence falls when not one but two heads lift from the nest on the bed. 

They both answer an uncertain ‘yes?’ when Patton calls Deceit’s name. He gasps, clasping his hands over his mouth, and chaos takes over. 

Deceit One has pearly white scales now that blend well with his skin. His eyes are yellow in the right light, and the scar is gone. He starts to babble under his mouth, claiming he doesn’t know what happened, that he woke up and the other imposter had appeared… 

Deceit Two hasn’t been so lucky and seems to have been stuck with the scarring, the long thin line on his cheek and the pink skin around his eye standing out starkly but not quite so angry looking without the scales to contrast to. He stays pressed back in the corner of the bed away from them all, watching his counterpart and the rest of the intruders warily. 

They manage to coax them both out and downstairs to the couch to take stock of the situation. Well, Logan and Roman do; no one else is particularly effective. Patton looks about one word away from a total breakdown, Virgil is chewing on his sleeves and Remus is stone-faced and silent at the loss of his old friend. 

Roman makes them all hot Horchata and hands both the shivering new sides a blanket each, doing his best to fill the parental shaped hole Patton has left by freaking out. 

“There’s been some mistake,” Deceit One protests weakly, taking the mug. “I’m Deceit. Look at me, I’m right here! Remus? Virgil? Anyone?! There’s nothing wrong with me, I’m fine! It’s _him_ who’s the problem!" 

The 'him’ in question flinches, leaning further away from One although he’s already almost as far as he can get along the couch without falling off the edge. 

Logan adjusts his glasses. "I don’t think either of you are necessarily a 'problem’. But neither are you Deceit any long, I’m afraid. This appears to be another Creativity situation somehow, although,” he glances at Patton briefly, “I’ve absolutely no idea how this happened." 

Patton turns away, conflict plain on his face. 

"I don’t think it was Patton,” Two speaks up for the first time, voice hoarse and low, very different from One’s. “He hasn’t been like that with me for a while.” He nods once when Patton meets his eyes in surprise, hope shining there for a moment. 

“We don’t know that for sure, we don’t know anything for sure!” One hisses, eyes slightly too wide to be anything but panicked and hiding it. “Maybe you’re just my darkness, taken away at last like Creativity did!" 

Virgil isn’t the only one to rise to Two’s defence then, and One shrinks back with a flash of sharp teeth, looking cowed but sulky. 

"I think we’ll have to ah, try and do what we did last time, I suppose? But without the… moral judgements?” Logan suggests carefully, trying his hardest not to look at Patton. But Patton nods his earnest agreement, moving forwards to sit next to Two and hold a hand out. 

“I really hope you’re right and this wasn’t me. But if I can help at all to help figure this out, you let me know, alright?” Two nods at him with wide eyes. One scoffs, but they ignore him. 

Roman doesn’t, though. Roman watches the pinch around his odd eyes, the tiny tremble in his hands around the mug in his lap. Roman notices those things and keeps watching. 

Perhaps Virgil would’ve understood them as well if he’d not been focusing on Two, joining Patton as they help Two up to go and get washed up and settled in a temporary room for the time being. 

Logan disappears as well with a murmured goodbye, already scribbling in a conjured notebook as he walks away. 

Remus, Roman and One sit silently in the living room. 

It gets too much for One after barely a minute and he shifts restlessly. “So what, I’m the bad one then? The Remus of this little situation?” He says sharply. Remus flinches and vanishes in a moment before Roman can open his mouth to reprimand One. One glares defiantly at him and the vulnerability so badly hidden there stops the words before they leave his lips. He just gets up to go and warm his mug up again in the microwave, watching the way One shrinks in on himself when he’s left alone, through the open wall between kitchen and living room. 

One hunches over, staring at his lap and staying very still. He brings the mug to his lips but doesn’t drink, just inhaling the dwindling steam and fighting back a sniff. Roman nearly rolls his eyes because it’s so obvious, but he manages to control the impulse and just brings back the hotter mug and swaps it with the one One is holding wordlessly. “Why are you still here?” One asks him, and it is a very valid question. 

But Roman knows the answer. “Because you don’t want to be alone." 

"You don’t know that. I’d actually prefer some peace and quiet-" 

"So you’re Lies, then.” The comment brings One up short and he blinks, startled by the blunt statement. 

“I- no, I’m _Deceit_ -" 

"Which isn’t true. Although it’s not far off, I suppose. Drink your horchata, you’ll feel better. I remember.”

Their eyes meet and One tentatively sips from his mug, scales shimmering as he moves, catching the light and Roman’s eye. They’re pretty, delicate looking and easy to miss now that they seem to blend right into the skin of his face. They look sweet, or alluring, and are about as deceptive as any shiny thing so often is. Which is to say; very. 

“I don’t know who I am,” One says slowly after a few sips. It’s not the truth, but the desperation on his face stops Roman from pointing this out. He clearly knows. “But! I… might not be Deceit. Not all of me. Him.”

It’s a good enough start. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not quite a happy ending.

Two emerges for dinner with Virgil and Patton, dressed in one of Virgil’s too-large sweaters and some pants, topped- or bottomed- with a pair of Patton’s fluffy bedsocks. His hair has been washed and is curling at the edges as it dries, and the wariness in his eyes is slightly eased. He still hangs back behind Virgil’s shoulder though, letting Patton lead him by the hand. 

One stays on the couch for dinner, claiming he’d rather eat alone and avoid the inevitable questioning. He barely looks at Two as the trio pass through the living room, but Roman sees the tightness in his muscles and his expression when Virgil meets his eyes for a moment and looks away. 

It’s a little bit heartbreaking. 

What follows is a period of adjustment, harder than even what they’d been attempting before. Thomas has to be let in on everything and the two new sides have to figure out how to be. 

Roman takes One to the imagination after a particularly nasty fight between the two halves, where Remus constantly shadows them. He’s been almost in hiding since the split, always watching from nearby but rarely coming out to be involved. 

In fact Roman hopes that being in the imagination will draw his own other half back out, choosing not to look too hard at the reasons why he’s so dedicated to helping One be accepted. 

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” One tells him one day as they walk in peaceful quiet around the hills of an idyllic magical countryside. “You could leave me to my own devices. Go and make friends with the other one. Turn me into the bad guy, don’t you want to do that?" 

"No.” Roman catches his arm to stop him dead. One lifts his chin proudly and faces him head on, unsmiling. “I want you to find who you really are. That’s all. And I don’t think this lashing out while you’re scared is helping much, it’s just convincing _you_ that you’re bad, not me.” He lets go and cups his hands around his mouth to yell. “Remus! Come out, we need you!" 

Remus is there when they turn around, looking a little thinner, a little more serious, the purple-black around his eyes spread a little further than before. 

"Talk. You need to,” Roman tells them both, marching off and leaving them stood on the hill alone, two stiff figures in the bright day.

* * *

“Hey Eve, can you pass the salt?” Patton freezes when One’s head snaps up in the middle of a forkful of pasta, eyes darting between Patton and… Eve, apparently. 

Things are still not halfway okay between the two. Talking to Remus had been invaluable, and Roman only occasionally regretted the tight friendship they’d struck up, mostly when it turned into wild pranks against him. Only ever him. 

But with the rest One was still awkward. And with Two he could be downright nasty. 

Right now he stands up, meeting Eve’s nervous eyes with fury in his own. “Can I talk to you in private quickly, _Eve_?" 

Virgil tries to protest. "No it’s fine, he can’t hurt me,” Eve murmurs quietly, stilling him with a hand on his shoulder, squeezing briefly before following One out the back. 

They only hear snatches of the argument. One’s voice is loud but today Eve snaps back. “I had to!” He shout. “I had to get on with it and learn how to live, god damn it!" 

One must hiss something in return, because Eve lets out a growl that shocks all of them but Virgil, who looks pleased. 

"Don’t you _dare imply that-_ ”

“And what about _me?!_ I’m just supposed to, hey! _You_ did this to us-”

Eve storms back inside, past the dining table and upstairs, slamming the door to the guest room he’s been staying in with a massive bang. 

“Well that went… bad,” Patton notes, putting his cutlery down. 

* * *

“I think Eden will do. If he’s going to take Eve,” One says one day, leaning into Roman’s side, skipping rocks out into the lake. “If we have to have names now. If we’re that far gone from him." 

"I don’t think that’s why he decided to pick a name,” Roman argues mildly. “But okay. Eden is pretty cool." 

"Eden was a lie,” Eden says, cutting his eyes sideways to see if Roman understands the meaning behind that. It’s as close to a confession as he’ll get.

“And Eve… did what he had to do." 

"Don’t you mean she?" 

”… No, I don’t.“

* * *

Eventually animosity cools to acceptance, and Eden occupies much the same space as his predecessor. Remus is delighted by the similarities between the two and seems to mostly just pretend Deceit never left and Eden is just him in a different face. Eden seems to appreciate that more than any reassurance Roman can give him, but that’s a lie of its own. 

Patton is determined to do things right this time round and fights tooth and nail to be pleasant to Eden at all times, and they develop an unlikely friendship, bonding over a shared love of the finer things in life; soft fabrics and pastel colours, nail polish and makeup. 

Logan establishes them into the natural order of Thomas’s mind and they pointedly don’t delve too deeply into the catalyst for the split. It hardly matters, now that it’s done. He is more curious about the conflict between them, but he keeps it to himself. The theory isn’t ready yet after all, and the peace is tentative at best. 

Eve is just delighted to exist, and Virgil is equally delighted to find someone to be cautious with, to contrast his own caution to so he can feel the urge to step up and be the bold one for once. They’re inseparable. It’s a point of contention when discussion first comes up of encouraging the two halves to try and repair their relationship. That will take a lot longer, everyone agrees. Not actively being at each other’s throats will do for now.  
  


It will have to. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A brief conversation.

A knock on the door frame is the only warning Eve gets before Eden slips inside, half in, half out.

“Can we talk?”

It’s a simple enough question, but Eve has to fight to push down his urge to protect himself, to avoid the inevitable conflict, to refuse his other self the request and feel the instant relief of avoidance. He shrugs, pushing up from his lounge on the bed to sit on it cross-legged. “Here?”

“Here is fine,” Eden replies, closing the door behind himself with a quiet click. He stands there, hands shoved into the pockets of his turned up khakis, and Eve takes a moment to look him over.

They’re no more twins than anyone else, not anymore. Their faces are too different, and their mannerisms. They don’t even have shared responsibilities now, unlike the split Creativity. It’s weird, because they were the same person once, but even then there was always a conflict between the two sides, hah. Sides. Sides and sides and sides… Eve snorts softly, which is apparently the only cue Eden needs to start pacing the floor in front of the door.

“So we’re apparently annoying everyone with our discord. I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you; you are bosom buddies with the two most sensitive of us after all.”

Eve bristles, ready to defend them both, but Eden doesn’t seem interested in the fight right now. “What’s your point?” He prompts when Eden doesn’t continue straight away. “You’re here to talk, so talk. I have other things to do.”

“I want to be your friend.”

“No you don’t.”

Eden gapes at him. “Yes I do!”

“No you _don’t_ ,” Eve replies bluntly. “You just want to be liked by everyone because then it’s easier to believe the lie that you like _yourself_.” It’s a truth that comes from an older place, a place they still feel deep down somewhere, when they were having this argument in one head instead of two.

“I- that’s not very _self-preservation_ of you, _Eve_ ,” Eden snarls, stepping forwards. He won’t try anything. Because Eve _is_ self-preservation, and just like Virgil’s fight or flight instinct he is good at defending himself in a pinch. It used to be that Eden’s lies would be the way Eve did that, as Deceit, but now they’re both a bit untethered and there are new ways to exist.

Maybe that’s the problem.

“If you want my blessing to go and be a brand new person then you have it you know. We don’t have to be friends. Or brothers, or whatever you feel we do.”

“I don’t feel that.”

“Yes you do.” Eve is getting a bit tired of having to constantly rebuff the blatant untruths. “I’ll ask Patton to back off. He just wants us to not hate each other like Roman and Remus do, but that’s-”

“That’s different. This is because of _us_ , of who _we_ are.”

“Exactly.”

Eden nods slowly. “I don’t want to fight with you,” he blurts out suddenly, and he looks as surprised to have said it as Eve does to hear it. “I mean, no actually I mean that. But I don’t want to be your best friend, either. Just… slightly formal step-family. Or something.”

It’s a reasonable vibe for them both. They’re just not interested in being as close as close can be. “Slightly formal step-family? Or like, polite in-laws.”

“Yeah. You get it?”

“I get it.” They look at each other for a long minute, both unable to read what the other is thinking. They don’t know each other, and they don’t particularly desire to. “It’s a deal, Eden.”

Eden nods, opening the door again. “Alright then. Good talk.”

He slips back out, and Eve goes back to scrolling through tumblr. And it works for them, from then on.


	4. Chapter 4

Something changes when Thomas meets Deceit's two halves. They refuse to let anyone call them twins, or brothers, because they're not that. They know they aren't that. They were not meant, as Eden once tells Roman during a storytelling competition between them both, to be one person. Two halves stuck together because of some quirk of formation. Perhaps as part of the way Thomas was brought up; when honesty meant vulnerability and danger and Virgil was busy going haywire at the very thought of both. So Self-preservation perhaps picked up Lying without even noticing, binding to that one system and tool only and eschewing all others. And setting the stage for Deceit.

Anxiety may have ended up with Lying instead, Eden thinks out loud, if Thomas hadn't been taught that dishonesty was so bad that Virgil wanted nothing to do with it. He pauses and murmurs that Virgil had had a tough start, something wistful in his tone that sounds like the way Deceit had used to watch Virgil with a soft smile while the other side went about his usual business, fond and familiar and faraway.

(That's also the moment when Roman starts plotting to help Eden and Virgil spend some time together, hoping to fix something there that he thinks might be hurting them both, jagged edged wounds that need to be soothed.

If only he could do the same for Eden and Eve.)

There's not a single other side that doesn't think- rightly or wrongly- that the two of them should be closer than they are. Perhaps its because they all only have the Creativity example to go by, and those two are practically _friends_ now, despite their history.

But then Thomas asks to meet them both at long last and the world tilts a little, shifting the ground under their feet.

* * *

Virgil holds Eve's hand when they appear in the stairwell, the scarred side's eyes wide and nervous. He wants to be elsewhere, to hide in the shadows like his aspect demands because this is _not safe_. But Thomas smiles, takes in the scarred and scared face and gives a reassuring smile and a wiggle of his fingers in greeting. And suddenly Eve is standing tall and smiling, really smiling. Because Thomas is not a danger and self-preservation can relax at last.

Eden dresses up and appears by himself, snapping at Roman until he leaves to rise up and let Eden work through his mood alone. He wears the same outfit Deceit had worn, making Roman and Patton frown, and Logan even goes to far as to open his mouth to comment before Eden has it clap shut. Thomas blinks, looking the new side over with a growing furrow between his eyebrows, and glances around for an explanation. "I'm Deceit," Eden starts but Remus shows up with his usual excellent timing and the game is over before it started. He loudly complains about the outfit being in bad taste, using Eden's name time and time again and gosh darn those intrusive thoughts but Eden just can't drown them out. Not even Lying makes _those_ go away. Deceit had been strong enough to cocoon Remus away from the rest but Eden alone is decidedly not.

It's perhaps disappointing for Eden to see the way Thomas's eyes go wide with understanding, and then twitch slightly in his direction. His new face should have inspired less disgust when he drops the facade of Deceit, but he senses the way Thomas still instinctively tries to convince himself that this is okay, that he's not afraid of this new side. He doesn't get the same sense from his host when he looks at Eve, and gosh he needs to vent to Remus again and try and figure out how he can even stand to be around Roman most of the time because it _hurts_.

But it is _Eve_ who comes to his defence. Perhaps some of the aspect still recognises Eden as self, as same, as something to protect, because in his quiet, low voice he explains to Thomas what had happened, spilling the truth that Eden can't until Thomas is looking at them in a different light. And at last, at long _long_ last; Thomas smiles at him too, and Eden has to vanish, overwhelmed by it all.

There was no lie in that smile; only relief. Thomas doesn't think he's a bad person because Eden is there and Eve is to thank for it.

* * *

Roman finds him later, eyes dry but red, curled up under the sunshine of the imagination and plucking at blades of grass. He allows Roman to lifting his upper half into his lap, sighs under the rhythmic stroking of fingers through his hair, and smiles at the briefest brush of kisses to his forehead. "You're as loved as any of us," Roman promises him softly. "And I'd love to stay but I'm just the advance guard. There's someone here to see you."

Eve is there, a respectful distance away when Eden twists to look for him. His hands are in his pockets but he has a tentative smile on his face and lifts one for a hesitant wave of greeting.

Roman looks back once as he leaves them to it, watching Even sit on the ground next to his other half, unable to hear what they say as their lips start to move but seeing the easier way they move around each other. And if this bond can be fixed then he's willing to believe literally anything can be possible.

It's a nice thought.


	5. Chapter 5

“You didn’t have to do that, you know,” Eden says quietly. The sunset is warm and comforting in the distant and the grass is soft beneath him. “I’m not your self to preserve, anymore. I’ve done nothing to deserve your help or kindness.”

Eve hums, noncommittal. They sit in silence, listening to the birds chirp in the nearby trees, seeing the vague movements of people in a village at the bottom of the rolling hills. Roman and Thomas have such a talent for imagination. 

It’s a few minutes later that Eve speaks again, but the quiet hasn’t been uncomfortable. Eden is surprised his other half bothers at all; he’s easily the quietest of them all usually, but today he puts in the effort. Why?

“I don’t think it’s a matter of what you deserve or don’t deserve,” Eve muses in his low, careful voice. “You are still one of us. You never seek to do harm to anyone; you’re very kind when you need to be. I think I just wanted to do it because _I_ wanted to. Kindness is... funny like that.”

Eden looks at Eve and Eve looks back, gaze calm and steady. He’s not scared of Eden, apparently, because the fight or flight is far from the front of his mind and he’s managing to maintain eye contact shockingly well. So well that it gives Eden a rare opportunity to study the other side’s face. 

It is his, just like every other side in Thomas’s mind, but it is also his in that he remembers those scars. He remembers seeing them and feeling them and he remembers when they’d appeared, searing into his skin. He is free of them now, but Eve is not, and he wonders if they still hurt. 

Without his say so his hand rises to Eve’s face, fingertips tracing the long line of the smooth swoop of scar tissue that travels out from the corner of his mouth. Eden tries not to overthink what he’s doing, but finds his fingers trembling by the time they reach the end of the line anyway.

Eve’s hand is warm when it closes around Eden’s and pulls it gently away, holding onto it even after it’s been taken from his face. His eyes never leave Eden’s face either, and perhaps he’s doing the same; thinking about the scales and the sibilance and... _missing them_. 

Eden’s chest heaves as though he’s run a marathon all of a sudden. “They don’t itch anymore,” he says out of nowhere, blurting the words like they’d been drawn out of him on pure instinct. They’re a lie, of course, because Lying is what he does, no matter how many noises Roman makes about Denial or Repression. He is a Liar, and he Lies. 

“It still aches, sometimes, but less now,” Eve replies quietly. “Virgil showed me a cream for the scarring, to soften the tissue and skin so it doesn’t pull so much. But when I speak too much it still gets uncomfortable.” 

“Oh. And smiling? Does that still...”

“It hurts less now, now that I have reason to practise,” Eve admits, his smile soft and shy. “Yours?” 

Anyone could be listening, but it’s beyond him to care. “Sometimes. They’re not so flexible as scar tissue, but the cream-” 

“I’ll get you some.” Eden nods once, a jerky, quick movement but enough to make Eve smile at him with the unmarred side of his face, the way they’d both learned out of years of habit. 

And then all there is left to say, is- “Thanks.” 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From these prompts:
> 
> I absolutely need more of Eve and Eden. Especially Eve! 
> 
> +
> 
> “Are you flirting with me?” “You finally noticed?” would be absolutely hilarious with roceit tbh
> 
> +
> 
> If you take prompts, "he never looked nice, he looked like art. Art isn't supposed to look nice, it's supposed to make you feel something" with Roceit

"Do you think I'm beautiful?" Eden asks one day, stopping in front of Roman as he plays with puppies in the living room. He sits down and lets one of the small creatures climb over him as Roman stares in confusion.

"Of course I do."

"I suppose that's one thing that's improved then. Sometimes I pity Eve, getting stuck with the scars… God knows Deceit hated the scars. They never did look very nice."

"I'm gonna stop you there," Roman says firmly. "When Remus and I split I talked that way too. I said horrible things and I pitied him and I invented this weird camaraderie with Creativity that wasn't only mine to have. The faces we wear here are what Thomas creates, right?" He waits until Eden nods slowly. "We're just canvases for him. And Deceit… He never looked nice, he looked like art. Art isn't supposed to look nice, it's supposed to make you feel something, and for Deceit and Thomas I guess there were quite a lot of somethings to be felt, right?"

Eden stares at him and swallows thickly, hanging on his every word. Smarter than he looks, this prince.

"He felt, scared," the scaled side says. "Both of them always felt scared when they looked at each other. Scared and motivated and warned. Maybe, also vulnerable?"

"Are those such bad things for Thomas to feel once in a while?" Roman asks softly, reaching out to pull Eden's hands into his own, the puppies gambolling off in little puffs of smoke, back to the Imagination. "Think about it. What was his job, really? Not to be the villain. But to hold some of the parts of Thomas that he needs but doesn't want to-"

"Doesn't want to look at." The words are barely a whisper but they're there, and Eden leans further and further in to Roman until the prince cups the back of his head and draws it to his shoulder.

He sighs, and Eden closes his eyes, feeling the comforting weight of that hand warm his neck. "He wasn't supposed to look nice. I think that's the same for Eve, now. But you? Quite the opposite. And it might just be this one side's opinion, but the sort of art you are is more than pleasing to the eyes."

The scaled side takes that in slowly, drinking up the words and mulling them over and coming to a conclusion he's been steadily drawing for the past while. He has to ask, just to be sure, just to be on the safe side.

"Are you flirting with me?"

"You finally noticed?"

Eden snorts lightly, and sits up, shyly meeting Roman’s eyes, made bashful by the truth there. "So," he begins, drawing the word out and pretending his hands aren't shaky in Roman's.

"So?" Roman urges, drawing his knuckles over the opalescent scales on Eden's cheek with a small, private smile.

"So you think I'm beautiful?"

Eden's laughter at his own teasing is cut off by Roman's smiling mouth, capturing the sound for his own. Why gaze at cold, flat art when you can hold it in your arms, warm and alive and real, after all?


End file.
